Introducing Sheridan

Today Sheridan turns 2.

I thought it would be fitting to share our announcement of his birth. I had grand plans of ordering baby announcements, but adjusting to new parenthood meant I never had the time to really pick out a picture, an announcement, order them, etc., and after sending pictures and an email to over 200 friends/family just 4 days after he was born, we figured we had covered our bases :)

Here it is, word-for-word, including the images we sent...

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Hi, Everyone!

Gary and I are thrilled to let you know that our healthy baby boy, Sheridan Michael, was born on August 18th!

His stats: he weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz and measured 20 inches long at birth, and as you can see from the pictures below he has a ton of hair! He's perfect (that's our objective opinion and we're sticking to it!).

As some of you might notice from his pictures, Sheridan was diagnosed with Down Syndrome shortly after birth. Gary and I know Sheridan came to the right place... Who else can offer him the love and support we (and all of our family & friends!) can? We have access to great services in our area, and most importantly we know there are no limits to what Sheridan can accomplish. He is healthy, happy, and so much fun!

I apologize for taking so long to send out this announcement... Many of you have likely already learned that we had an extended hospital stay because I had severe bleeding after Sheridan's birth (I lost half my blood volume). I'm on the road to recovery now, but please be patient with us as we are slow to respond to email and phone while I continue to recover (and we adjust to parenthood!).

Gary and I are doing well and we're so excited about our new, growing family! Sheridan is truly a joy and I can't wait for you all to meet him!

We hope you all are well...

Love,

Lisa, Gary, & Sheridan

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Two confessions:

1. Neither Gary nor I "saw" the Ds features the doctor told us about when she gave us the diagnosis. But I didn't know any other way to break that ice... I debated whether or not it was "appropriate" to mention his diagnosis in his birth announcement, but I didn't want people to feel like we were hiding it either (because we weren't). And how do you mention it at a later date when we see/talk to somebody? Weird. So we just put it out there so everyone knew, and everyone would know how we felt about his diagnosis.

2. It amazed me to read this two years later. We truly meant every. single. word. we said in Sheridan's birth announcement; however, we were struggling with the diagnosis. I'm just in awe that I drafted this quick note as a placeholder (remember I was planning to send gorgeous baby announcements?) and that it shows the love, advocacy, support, and potential for Sheridan that I see today.

Maybe I'm psychic :)